In the art of catalysis, there is often little predictability between the composition and/or structure of a material and its catalytic properties. Therefore, essentially the only way to determine if a particular material is a good catalyst is by testing the material under the actual conditions encountered in the process of interest. Moreover, evaluation of a new material for a particular catalytic application requires the material to be tested over a wide range of experimental conditions (such as pressure, flow rates, temperature and concentrations of reagents).
Thus the evaluation of potential catalytic materials requires that a large number of separate tests be performed. This can be time consuming and expensive, not only because of the time required to effect each test but also because of the time required to prepare the catalyst and establish the desired process conditions. Added to this is the challenge that catalytic evaluations must frequently be conducted on very limited quantities of material, particularly where the material is the product of a novel synthesis technique.
To address these problems, a number of automated catalyst testing devices have been developed which typically operate by simultaneously testing a plurality of catalyst samples in a particular process and then sequentially or simultaneously analyzing the products of each test. However, these parallel testing devices frequently require very sophisticated control equipment, valving and analytical equipment that can make the devices extremely expensive.
There is therefore a need for apparatus that can effect rapid and automatic serial testing of a plurality of catalyst samples.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,364 discloses an apparatus for contacting a fluid stream with a particulate solid contact material, the apparatus comprising a supported heat exchange body, temperature regulating means surrounding said heat exchange body, a vertically disposed open ended tube extending through said heat exchange body, upper closure means and lower closure means for said tube, a support means attached to said lower closure and extending into said tube and a supply conduit disposed in said heat exchange body opening into said tube above said support means and below said upper closure means. The apparatus allows catalyst to be quickly removed from the bottom of the tube and a new sample added through the top of the tube without losing time in cooling and reheating the reactor. However, relatively large quantities of catalyst are required and catalyst replacement is effected manually.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,923 discloses an automatic catalyst screening unit for the parallel, automatic screening of a plurality of potential catalysts comprising a reactor module defining a plurality of elongated reaction chambers for receiving respective potential catalysts; feeding means for individually and selectively feeding each of said reaction chambers with gaseous reactant; and analyzing means for analyzing the product passing out of said reaction chambers, said analyzing means communicating with said plurality of reaction chambers by means of a common manifold.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,700 discloses a headspace autosampling apparatus for generating and delivering gaseous samples from headspaces in vials holding substances for analysis to an inlet of an analytical instrument for analysis, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of generally cylindrical vials having an interior area which contains a substance therein, at least a portion of which is liquid and including a headspace above said substance; means for rotating said vials about an axis extending longitudinally through said interior area and wherein said axis extends generally horizontally such that a film of said substance coats an interior surface of the vials whereby the rate of diffusion of the substance into the headspace is increased; holding means for holding the plurality of vials, wherein said holding means holds said vials in a vertically stacked relation and with the longitudinal axis of each vial extending in a generally horizontal direction; heating means for heating a heated zone; means for delivering said vials one at a time from said holding means to the heated zone; and, means for placing the headspace of the vials in said heated zone in fluid communication with said inlet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,306,658 discloses apparatus for parallel processing of reaction mixtures comprising vessels sealed against fluid communication with one another and adapted for containing the reaction mixtures at pressures different than ambient pressures; a stirring system for agitating the reaction mixtures; a temperature control system for regulating the temperature of the reaction mixtures in the vessels; and an injection system comprising a fluid delivery probe movable from one vessel to another vessel for effecting the introduction of a fluid into each of the vessels at a pressure different than ambient pressure, said injection system being operable for preventing leakage of fluid under pressure from each vessel during said introduction by said fluid delivery probe and after said probe has moved to another vessel.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0003017 discloses a method of parallel screening one or more material properties or one or more characteristics of reaction of two or more samples comprising the steps of: loading one or more library of samples into a reaction chamber; sealing the reaction chamber; and transporting the library of samples to an injection module for injection of one or more chemical components onto the samples comprising each library.